Gaming devices such as slot machines generate more than $15 billion in revenue per year for U.S. casinos. In fact, most casinos generate more than half of their gaming revenue from gaming devices such as slot machines. To take advantage of the popularity of slot machines and other gaming devices, some casinos offer three or four thousand slot machines in a single location.
Despite the popularity of gaming devices in casinos, players continually get bored with the games available and demand innovation and change to stimulate their ongoing interest. In response, gaming device manufacturers and game designers continually strive to develop new types of games. However, despite the continuing efforts to develop new games, other aspects of the gaming experience have to date not been significantly changed or improved to stimulate player interest. For example, the payout structure of most gaming devices is very traditional and has not changed much in generations of gaming devices.
In most gaming devices, a payout table depicts which outcomes obtainable on a gaming device correspond to payouts. As a player obtains an outcome that corresponds to a payout in the payout table, the corresponding payout amount is added to the player's credit meter balance. Payouts for a typical game vary from a handful of coins to five hundred coins. Of course, payouts as high as several thousand or a million dollars are available on some select gaming devices. However, such high payouts, if available at all, typically correspond to one outcome in a payout table and this outcome is one that is very rarely achieved. In other words, in the typical payout structure of most gaming devices payouts of amounts significant enough to stimulate player excitement are not always available and, if available, are rarely achieved. This is due to the casino's need to remain profitable.
Unfortunately, the casinos' need for profitability results in a lack of excitement on players' part over small payouts and frustration over the infrequency of larger payouts. Accordingly, a need exists for a new and innovative payout structure that stimulates more excitement in players than do conventional payout structures.